Nice one

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re-start

Isn't that inconspicuous button just beside the power switch a life saver? The economists and so called think-tanks would certainly wish they had one by their side.

The mess that the entire world economy is facing is surely worth devoting some time. The question that puzzles me though is this - how on earth did we manage to create it in the first place? Its rather a miraculous u-turn. From the economic boom that filled the common man's perception with better returns and a certain upward trajectory to a situation where the major economies have almost come to a halt is worth analyzing. Current unemployment in the US and Europe has never been higher since the post world-war era where major economies were virtually obliterated.

Can we also say that the tide is shifting towards the Asian behemoths - especially the dragon and the elephant. Do we see a change of power at the centre of world order in the years to come? Possibly. But international relations and politics are so construed, its almost impossible to predict at this point in time. However, with China vying for a separate currency instead of the dollars hegemony should speak clearly of its intentions. India too has increasingly been involved in global talks and its say in global order and politics now carry more weight than ever.

Does this then bring to an end the dominance of capitalistic thought at the helm of economic ideologies? The European countries with their strongly designed social protection net has been able to stave off the ill effects that the recession has brought forth as compared to the free market economies of US. Though reeling under extreme pressure, the presence of a co-coordinating body at the centre in the form of EU has also just managed to save the day for the Europeans.

Whatever be the outcome, the level of uncertainty is surely at its peak.

Steal this pic

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An excerpt

The greater part of my leisure is spent watching movies, and the diverse array on offer are a testament to the creativity of the most fertile hearts and minds. Of late there is one particular line that caught my attention, and I couldn't help thinking over it again and again.

In the movie Chunking Express, by the acclaimed Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, the protagonist He Qiwu (aka cop 223) breaks up with his girlfriend May on 1st April and decides to wait for a month with the anticipation of mending their relationship. So everyday he goes to the store and buys a tin of pineapple with May 1 as the expiry date, which is his birthday. He believes that by the end of that period he will either be successful in getting back together with his girlfriend or the relationship would expire forever. It is at this moment that he poses this profound question

"If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates?"

and comes up with an equally optimistic answer.

"If so, I hope they last for centuries."

Although the thought lies on the boundary of absurdity, yet the idea of having our memories canned with a certain expiration date is moving and worth pondering over. The broader question can therefore be deconstructed as - do memories have a finite life-span? If so, do they just die out, fade or burn away; and if not, are they stacked up in a far corner of our mind and never reused (like an ancient book gathering dust in a library), or do they lie dormant only to spring back into life providing an equal measure of pain or pleasure as that of the event stored?

Presumably we have an internal method of selection and then an equally complex system of hierarchical ordering of memories (akin to putting up an expiry date which is further in the future rather than in the proximate and then its sequencing). So in a sense, the ability to recollect past memories might lie at the core of character formation. As is observed in real life, a person with a positive attitude is more likely to recollect an intensely fond memory than a pessimist. It is also true that what we are at present is a result of the cumulative building up of layers of memories - some loathsome and hideous, others cheerful and amusing.

Or is it that the causality runs both ways?

• character leads to selective retention of memories, or/and
• memories retained lead to character building.

the figure and the reverie...

the very act of dreaming manifests the presence of a subconscious state. It is a state of weightless existence. Although am a little uncomfortable with the idea that dreams can be logically deconstructed to find an underlying scheme of thought, i have always been attracted to its incoherent structure. In most instances it has no rhyme or reason. No matter how vehemently we may project our rationality and take pride in our higher ability in finding a causal relationship amongst happenings interspersed with space and time, dreams play the role of exposing the truth behind the facade.

Do we really know who we are? Have we befriended the face behind the face? These questions are eternal and one full life will fall short in finding a convincing answer. But are dreams actually the residual terms of our existence - in the sense that whatever might seem unachievable as a mortal is expressed in our dreams or are they just garbled noises of a fucked up system? Both can be considered as equi-probable.

Inspite of centuries of existence, a civilized society is only a recent phenomenon in the historical time line. Like all social animal we have perfected the art of domestication, of existing but not really being who we are. But lets not forget that we do possess a limbic system that is extremely primitive. Its dormant, no doubt, but not extinct. In dreams get an opportunity to experience an excited state - to find pleasure in pain and pain in pleasure - a violent contradiction, but cannot be dismissed on any account.

Dreams are figments of our imaginations, the ultimate exultation of the free spirit in man. Although i can seldom reconstruct the sequence of my dreams, it most often leaves me in a lingering state of wonder and amazement, and sometimes even delirium - the real and the unreal becomes so hard to distinguish, like different layers of paint on the same canvas. It only shows how helpless we are in the absence of reason.

At the same time there its thrilling too -aaah i wish i could put it down in words, but on second thought i think that it is absolutely unnecessary. We all have our dreams, some recurring, others fleeting, meeting countless people and leading the lives of thousands of unknown entities. Its a rather abstract networking site...isnt it..?

ok guys!!

some cheap thoughts about a person on a rainy day in october.......

pore se ekta bejai chosma
pakh khaoai anguler dogai,
bhabte gelei hath chulkai
chere mathar cantharidin-daoa chul.

gari kineche natun ekdom,
bole, ami "parallel parking" er raja
dui mash jetei diyeche thuke
buke tai boddo tar betha.

sobsamaiye bestotar ki hab-bhab,
sab theke mulloban samay tar
baki sabai to yaarki kore,
murkho r obodh amra sob.

pai jodi khola akasher tole
nishtobdho nirjan kono rate,
kambal jariye bedom marbo
ahamika phelbo muche tar.